2008 is the Year of the Rat in the Chinese calendar. As expected, over a billion Chinese around the world have displayed a colorful, lavished, extravagant, unique and pure oriental kind of New Year celebration.
Here in the Philippines, Filipino-Chinese who are scatter all over the archipelago did the same. Celebration of the Chinese new year is centered in Binondo, a place known to many as "Chinatown" where most of them live and do business.
As usual, we have witnessed again the magnificent display of fireworks (firecrackers were invented by Chinese hundreds of years ago), the traditional performance of the dragon dance, and many others as distinct characteristics of celebrating Chinese. And of course, there were bountiful and mouth watering Chinese delicacies like the ever popular "tikoys" that were usually given as giveaway to passersby.
Chinese are popular not only for their unique celebration of new year but also famous for their Great Wall, acupuncture, Chinese foods (like noodles), exotic foods, healing wonders, to mention a few. But as a whole, the Chinese people have developed a distinct and unique culture of their own and appeared to be different among the rest in the world.
Chinese are known for eating turtle because they believe that it give them long life. They are also known for eating snakes because they believe that the meat has healing powers and a good source of aphrodisiac. But I never heard them eating "STAR" meat.
STAR meat is an exotic food to many Filipinos. Many also believe that it possesses healing power. And since it's the year of the rat and we mentioned a bit about food, I would like to tell a story on the healing wonder of STAR meat and how I get my niece into eating STAR meat and the reason why I had to let her eat this meat.
Five months ago, my niece who is six year-old, and is staying with my mom during school days because her parents are both working. But she stays with them during weekends. And since there's no one left home to take care and look for her she has to stay with her grandmother who happens to live next door to mine, for our house is a duplex and she has been there since she was four.
One Sunday afternoon, while I was doing some minor repair with my motorbike, she arrived with her mom, who is my younger sister. My sister does this every Sunday and will fetch her every Friday afternoon (this is their usual routine). I noticed three red spot, ( that looks like some kind of insect bites) on her left thigh. I asked my niece, and her mom, too about it but both answered "they don't know."
The following morning, I went to the house next door to check whether the red spots were gone , but to my surprise they were still there and they were a bit swollen, what surprised me more, was the appearance of new red spots, this time on her right thigh.
I was alarmed, so I immediately texted my sister regarding what I discovered. I have this fear that my niece will grow as a lady with a lot of scars in her legs and I don't want this to happen. My sister replied saying she'll bring her the next day to the doctor.
So she did. She was diagnosed and the doctor declared that the spots were scabies and so she was given some medicine. But after two weeks of continuous medication the scabies didn't get well, instead, more scabies appeared each day. So they brought her back again to the doctor.
My mom was very worried, too. To help for the speedy healing of my niece's scabies she would cleanse it with water boiled in guava leaves twice a day, after which she would apply bethadine as the doctor had ordered. But to no avail, more and more appeared each passing days.
Getting more worried on her daughter's skin problem, my sister even brought her to an "albularyo"(witchdoctor). The said albularyo gave some instruction to my sister to perform once they got home. And so she did, she followed the instructions very well. Step by step, she performed the ritual. But just the same, the skin disease just got worse.
On my way home, one afternoon, I saw a man walking along the road carrying with him 30 pieces, more or less of skinned and beheaded STAR (it was harvest season that time).This is the time where there's plenty of STAR in the rice fields. I immediately stopped and parked my bike alongside the highway and politely asked the man if he would sell the STAR meat. He smiled and then mildly laughed. He said they were not for sale (hunters of this kind of animal don't usually sell it). They were reserved for their drinking session as "pulutan" (appetizer) he added. "Just ten pieces only" I said." I just needed them for my niece". "I will pay you P150" I lured him. The man finally agreed, so I gave him the money, thanked him and I proceeded home.
Way back in Isabela(my home province) there's a common belief that STAR meat can cure scabies. The meat is not just delicious but also contains medicinal value as well, though there is no scientific basis for this, I do believe that it really does. My youngest brother, who used to have scabies when he was still a toddler, was cured by eating STAR meat.
So, when I arrived home, I immediately poured some salt on the STAR meat, and deep fried two pieces and put the rest on the fridge. Then I served it for dinner for my niece saying it's a bird's meat (just like what my father told to my youngest brother before) so that she would eat it. She said it is delicious! It's even tastier than native chicken she added and was asking for more. I promised her that I will cook another the next day. And so I did what I told her the next afternoon, the third, and so on and so forth.
Miraculous indeed, because after five days of eating STAR meat, my niece's scabies got dried, disappeared and finally got well. Unbelievable it would seem but you got to believe it. That's the healing power of STAR meat-RATS meat.
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